Abstract

Introduction:
There are increasing studies to show that excessive intake of dietary fats particularly saturated fats and trans fats will increase the risks of getting cardiovascular diseases. It is important to provide clear concepts and basic knowledge of dietary fats to the medical/non-medical students. While studying the dietary fat metabolism, students may feel frustrated as the mechanism is not easy to pick up. Also, there is no e-learning courseware to support the blended learning in this teaching. The aims of this project were focusing on the understanding of dietary fats metabolism including the classifications, absorption, mobilization and storage of dietary fats.

Methodology:
4 micro-modules were developed with 5-8 minutes in animations. The roles of different micro-modules were providing general concepts for flipped classroom (pre-lecture learning) and recalling what they learnt after face-to-face lectures (post-lecture learning) reflected by online assessments. Those videos were uploaded at CUHK blackboard system for students to access during the semester of the course launched. Students clicked or downloaded the micro-modules before/after the lectures given by the teaching staff and completed the online assessment anytime.

Findings:
To determine whether the developed micro-modules were supportive for the students’ learning, the student surveys were incorporated at the end of the module to obtain feedback on the core material, web interface and ease of use. Students found those micro-modules were useful and enhanced their confidence in independent studying.

Conclusions:
For the further development, an eLearning pedagogy research can be conducted based on this micro-module project to investigate the development and implementation of micro-modules for flipped classroom teaching, the consolidation of basic pre-clinical knowledge and self-evaluation of understanding certain topics based on face-to-face lectures.